The Prophets

There are books in the Old Testament that are considered to be ‘the Prophets’. Luke wrote about ‘Moses and the Prophets’ in Luke 24:27 and in Acts 26:22. The Apostle Paul referred to the ‘Law and the Prophets’ when he wrote the letter to the Romans (3:21). Jesus spoke of ‘the Law and the Prophets’ in The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17, 7:12) and many other instances.

We can conclude from the many references to ‘the Prophets’, that these books are indeed God’s Word. These books were very important to the New Testament writers and are a vital piece to us today in understanding God’s story of redemption.

These special books are called ‘the Prophets’, because they were written by people called ‘prophets’. What exactly is a prophet? In a most basic sense, they are spokesmen for God. These spokesmen were chosen for this job by God Himself. They had a special intimate relationship with the Lord as His servant and messenger. When we think of ‘prophets’, we think of someone who is gifted in making predictions about the future. But a prophet’s job was much more than that. Their job was to be God’s ambassador to the people.

The prophets communicated in what is known as ‘oracles’. An ‘oracle’ is a special type of poetic language that makes use of figurative speech and vivid imagery. This kind of language is to be interpreted much differently than say a historical narrative or other sorts of prose. There are two types of ‘oracles’: Oracles of Judgment and Oracles of Salvation.

Oracles of Judgment
These, in their most basic sense, were words from God spoken through the prophets that condemned the children of Israel for breaking the covenant Law. It seems that the purpose of these kinds of words was to produce genuine repentance in the hearts of the hearers.

An example of an ‘oracle of judgment’ would be a passage like Isaiah 2:11:

The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,
and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

And Isaiah 2:19

And people shall enter the caves of the rocks
and the holes of the ground,
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.

Oracles of Salvation

These oracles are maybe best understood as words that foresee a future restoration, a future deliverance and future outpouring of mercy. These passages that promise a future salvation unmistakebly link the Old Testament with the New Testament with an unbreakable bond.

Examples of ‘oracles of salvation’ would be passages like:

Ezekiel 36:26 – Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Jeremiah 31:33 – “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

These verses in the Old Testament refer to the condition of our hearts being so hard, like a stone. These words communicate the awesome truth that the Lord causes a supernatural transformation to occur, making our cold, calloused and rebellious heart receptive to the life-changing truth that Jesus saves!